Thank you for this post, and that other thing! I had trouble emailing you for some reason.

And thank you, subby, for posting an article that actually improved my mood! I'm not strictly anti-capital; I'm strictly anti-greed when it's unnecessary. We all have to be somewhat greedy in order to house, clothe, and feed ourselves, but there is a point where that greed crosses over into douchezilla territory. That is a nebulous point for sure - and I'm not here to put a number on it. But c'mon man, treating your workers like sh*t just to eek out a little more certainly qualifies that person as a jerk.

What is he doing? True Capitalist Job Creators need to keep their servants employees in their place with low wages while reaping in the profits/cashing out to Bain Capital or other similar firms to allow them to milk the business for all its worth. It is utterly socialist to be believe that bettering your lessers is good for the economy. Isn't it common knowledge that the only net gain for the economy in the USA is in the purchase of luxury goods like yachts, private aircraft and expensive jewelry made in foreign countries?

dickfreckle:Darth_Lukecash: This is what we need more of in our society.

Thank you for this post, and that other thing! I had trouble emailing you for some reason.

And thank you, subby, for posting an article that actually improved my mood! I'm not strictly anti-capital; I'm strictly anti-greed when it's unnecessary. We all have to be somewhat greedy in order to house, clothe, and feed ourselves, but there is a point where that greed crosses over into douchezilla territory. That is a nebulous point for sure - and I'm not here to put a number on it. But c'mon man, treating your workers like sh*t just to eek out a little more certainly qualifies that person as a jerk.

Welcome. Too bad the owner of a local grocery store chain I worked at back in the early '90s didn't do the same thing.

serial_crusher:Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Grocery store margins are razor thin too.

At least as an employee you're guaranteed a profit.

Bemidgi is a small town though (big enough for a large customer pool - small enough to keep the big boys out) and this guy probably was the main player there, so I'd imagine his profits were fairly respectable.

TomD9938:serial_crusher: Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Grocery store margins are razor thin too.

At least as an employee you're guaranteed a profit.

Bemidgi is a small town though (big enough for a large customer pool - small enough to keep the big boys out) and this guy probably was the main player there, so I'd imagine his profits were fairly respectable.

TomD9938:serial_crusher: Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Grocery store margins are razor thin too.

At least as an employee you're guaranteed a profit.

Bemidgi is a small town though (big enough for a large customer pool - small enough to keep the big boys out) and this guy probably was the main player there, so I'd imagine his profits were fairly respectable.

Yeah about that...

WinCo Foods pulls close to 10% profit. Albertsons aka SuperValu barely eeks out 2-3%. Why? WinCo is employee owned. It works. They're also anti-union so they have that going for them.

Smeggy Smurf:TomD9938: serial_crusher: Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Grocery store margins are razor thin too.

At least as an employee you're guaranteed a profit.

Bemidgi is a small town though (big enough for a large customer pool - small enough to keep the big boys out) and this guy probably was the main player there, so I'd imagine his profits were fairly respectable.

Yeah about that...

WinCo Foods pulls close to 10% profit. Albertsons aka SuperValu barely eeks out 2-3%. Why? WinCo is employee owned. It works. They're also anti-union so they have that going for them.

Why would you need a union in an employee owned company? The labor is the management there.

DarkLancelot:Smeggy Smurf: TomD9938: serial_crusher: Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Grocery store margins are razor thin too.

At least as an employee you're guaranteed a profit.

Bemidgi is a small town though (big enough for a large customer pool - small enough to keep the big boys out) and this guy probably was the main player there, so I'd imagine his profits were fairly respectable.

Yeah about that...

WinCo Foods pulls close to 10% profit. Albertsons aka SuperValu barely eeks out 2-3%. Why? WinCo is employee owned. It works. They're also anti-union so they have that going for them.

Why would you need a union in an employee owned company? The labor is the management there.

The labor is the ownership, not the management. Employees have little to no decision making about what goes on there. At best if they stick around for their 20ish years then they get a chunk of money when they leave. It's little more then a dressed up retirement plan that relies on the company staying in business.

dickfreckle:Darth_Lukecash: This is what we need more of in our society.

Thank you for this post, and that other thing! I had trouble emailing you for some reason.

And thank you, subby, for posting an article that actually improved my mood! I'm not strictly anti-capital; I'm strictly anti-greed when it's unnecessary. We all have to be somewhat greedy in order to house, clothe, and feed ourselves, but there is a point where that greed crosses over into douchezilla territory. That is a nebulous point for sure - and I'm not here to put a number on it. But c'mon man, treating your workers like sh*t just to eek out a little more certainly qualifies that person as a jerk.

No problem. I like reasonable voices, no matter what part of the country they come from ;-)

serial_crusher:Yeah, but with a bunch of high school dropouts running the show, how long do you think that company will be profitable?

Most grocery stores kinda run themselves. They have ~5 managers who are full-time employees of the store, + a general manager, a bookkeeper and a receiver. Sure, a Super Stop & Shop out here might have 25-40 more employees part time or so, but in general, the store runs itself.

Lueken's employees will get shares at no cost to them based on length of service and salary. When someone leaves or retires, the current employees are obligated to repurchases his or her shares. The shares' value will grow with the company.

"Look, you'll move from stock boy to manager to sole owner in no time. There can only be one!"

How does that obligation for the other employees to purchase your shares play out? Does that include new employees, or is it only people who are employees today?If half of the company walks out tomorrow, does the other half have to somehow pony up 50% of the value of the company to cash them out? That would probably make a sizable dent in your check to check lifestyle.

Owner still makes a nice profit. The Owner still gets paid his ridiculous sum by the company which purchases the stock for the employees. Then after a few years, the ESOP program turns around and sells the business to the higher bidder anyway thereby paying back the company for the money paid to original owner and giving some to the employees. Do not be fooled: the owner still got his. He just lets the employees have it a couple of years to get a little themselves before doing what he would have done in the first place: selling to the highest bidder. (Wife's company went through this and watched it firsthand.)

- Appreciated the profits we got, though.-- Very kind boss who cared for his employees.

It figures that this happened in Minnesota. I've lived in 15 different states throughout the US, and although I was born and raised nowhere near Minnesota, it is the state I enjoyed the most. Not because of the scenery, pretty though it is, it's still too flat for my tastes. Not because of the weather, although I like a challenge. No, it's the people. They flat out do not have a chip on their shoulder. They're warm, welcoming and intelligent.

I lived there for eight years, and made dozens of friends. I had to move to Arizona to take care of my mother, and in the five years I've lived here, I've made one friend, and he was so racist I dropped him. I live in a town that has NO blacks, but they cause ALL the problems here. Go figure. I know that there are good people in Arizona, but I have yet to meet any (except on FARK).

Thank you Minnesota. Y'all are unpretentious, and would never claim to be the best state in the Union, but you're pretty darned good.

The labor is the ownership, not the management. Employees have little to no decision making about what goes on there. At best if they stick around for their 20ish years then they get a chunk of money when they leave. It's little more then a dressed up retirement plan that relies on the company staying in business.

It can be set up that way. But in the UK's largest retail chain, employees control one-third of the board's seats. Link

"John Lewis Partnership owns the biggest department store chain in England, the Waitrose supermarket chain, and other brands. With $13.7 billion in 2011 revenues and 81,000 employees, it would rank in the Fortune 200. With revenues up about 7.4 percent annually over the past decade, it grew faster than Macy's. It stayed profitable throughout the Great Recession. Perhaps most importantly, and unlike many big retailers, it succeeds while providing fair compensation (including pensions) and giving employees control over the business."